Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia

BMC Research Notes, Nov 2017

Objective Self-medication is defined as use of medicines to treat self-recognized illnesses. It is widely used in Ethiopia. However, its extent of use is unknown among health professionals. This study aimed to assess prevalence and reasons of self-medication with modern medicines among health professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the health professionals, working in the public health facilities. Data were collected from March to May, 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. A chi square test was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval. Results A total of 154 health professionals were enrolled, with 53% were being females. The finding revealed that prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines was 67.5%. Financial constraints (32.5%) and familiarity with medicines (24%) were the major reasons of self-medication. It also showed that self-medication with modern medicines was significantly associated with marital status (χ2 = 19.57, P = 0.00). Analgesics (53%) and antibiotics (36%) were the most commonly used categories of medicines. Self-medication with modern medicines was highly practiced among health professionals. Financial constraints and familiarity with medicines were the two major reasons of practicing.

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Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia

Sado et al. BMC Res Notes Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia Edao Sado 0 Endashaw Kassahun 2 Getu Bayisa 1 Mohammed Gebre 1 Ayana Tadesse 1 Balisa Mosisa 3 0 Pharmacoepidemiology and Social Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Wollega University , P.O.Box 395, Nekemte , Ethiopia 1 Clinical Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College Health of Sciences, Wollega University , Nekemte , Ethiopia 2 Boru Meda Hospital, Amhara National Regional State , Dessie , Ethiopia 3 Pharmaceutics Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College Health of Sciences, Wollega University , Nekemte , Ethiopia Objective: Self-medication is defined as use of medicines to treat self-recognized illnesses. It is widely used in Ethiopia. However, its extent of use is unknown among health professionals. This study aimed to assess prevalence and reasons of self-medication with modern medicines among health professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the health professionals, working in the public health facilities. Data were collected from March to May, 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. A chi square test was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval. Results: A total of 154 health professionals were enrolled, with 53% were being females. The finding revealed that prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines was 67.5%. Financial constraints (32.5%) and familiarity with medicines (24%) were the major reasons of self-medication. It also showed that self-medication with modern medicines was significantly associated with marital status (χ2 = 19.57, P = 0.00). Analgesics (53%) and antibiotics (36%) were the most commonly used categories of medicines. Self-medication with modern medicines was highly practiced among health professionals. Financial constraints and familiarity with medicines were the two major reasons of practicing. Self-medication; Modern medicines; Ethiopia Introduction Self-medication is defined as use of medicines by individuals to treat self recognized illnesses [ 1 ]. It includes diagnosing and treating one’s own illness and prescribing for one’s self [ 2, 3 ]. It is highly practiced in developing countries, which might be due to availability of medicines from informal sectors such as open marker, supermarket, and inadequate health care services [4]. Self-medication with both over the counter and prescription only medicines are common in developing countries [ 5 ]. Health professionals are familiar with medicines so they are different from the other population in terms of medicine use [ 6 ]. Knowledge and access to prescription medicines are potential factors for self-prescribing among health professionals. Other factors that are often quoted include the complaint of extensive demands on their time, issues of privacy and confidentiality [ 6 ]. Health professionals expect that their patients to seek appropriate health care when they get sick. However, they do not seek appropriate health care by themselves. For example, they might be inappropriately self-medicate with prescription only medicines, which lead to irrational use of medicines [ 7, 8 ]. This might be due to a perception that self-prescribing with prescription only medicines such as narcotics analgesic is safe; which is not allowed even illegal for self-prescribing [ 8, 9 ]. Various studies showed that they self-medicate with modern medicines without consulting other health care professionals, which lead to development of pill for every ill culture in the medical community. Self-medication with modern medicines has many problems. The major problems are over prescribing, misuse, use of unnecessary expensive drugs and overuse of antibiotics. These problems are great issues of global concern [ 10, 11 ]. A study conducted in India showed that a lower degree of illness is the main reason of practicing self-medication among health professionals [ 12 ] while studies done in Malaysia and Pakistan showed familiarity with treatment as a main reason of practicing self-medication [ 7, 13, 14 ]. Though different studies have been conducted in different parts of Ethiopia, the extent of self-medication among health professionals is not assessed yet. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals; and to identify major reasons of self-medicating. Main text Methods Study setting and study design The study was conducted on health care professionals, who were working in the public health care facilities found in a Nekemte town, western part of Ethiopia. The town is located at 328  km away from Addis Ababa, the capital city of the country. The town was selected as it is the largest and most populous town in the western part of Ethiopia. At the ti (...truncated)


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Edao Sado, Endashaw Kassahun, Getu Bayisa, Mohammed Gebre, Ayana Tadesse, Balisa Mosisa. Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia, BMC Research Notes, 2017, pp. 533, Volume 10, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s13104-017-2865-5